1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus equipped with a head unit on which a plurality of print heads are mounted.
2. Related Art
Hitherto, large printers have required a large head unit in which a number of droplet ejection heads (print heads) are mounted on a single carriage (head plate). Replacement of such a large head unit needs to be carried out in such large printers.
A head unit is known that includes, in order to efficiently carry and set such a large carriage, a plurality of droplet ejection heads, a carriage in which the plurality of droplet ejection heads are mounted so as to protrude from the back side of the carriage, and a pair of left and right handles provided on the front side of the carriage to allow the carriage to be carried by hand (JP-A-2003-127343). The head unit is first placed on a temporary table that is positioned at a somewhat higher position than a set stage (carriage) when the head unit is installed in the set stage. The operator holds the pair of left and right handles that are provided on the front side of the carriage, tilts the head unit so as to lower the end of the head unit and slides the head unit along the temporary table, abuts the end against a stopper of the set stage, and further lowers the head unit so that the head unit is loaded onto the set stage. Furthermore, since the operator holds the pair of left and right handles, the head unit can be carried while maintaining its setting position; accordingly, the head unit can be attached and detached in a stable and safe manner even if the head unit is large.
The above-described head unit is loaded onto the set stage by sliding the head unit while the head unit is tilted so as to lower the end of the head unit; accordingly, the operator needs to disadvantageously hold on to the handle and maintain the tilted position of the head unit until mounting of the head unit is completed. Accordingly, a large space is required on the upper side of the set stage to carry out the attaching and detaching operation and, as a result, the device becomes disadvantageously large.
Furthermore, when the head unit is installed at various angles that are not parallel to the floor surface or when installing the head unit to a high position, disadvantageously, the position of the operator during work becomes unstable and the attaching and detaching work becomes difficult.